My Guilty Verdict of Identity Political Sins

 

I awakened this morning realizing the horrid truth that I am an affront to identity political fears. Of all my sins, probably my most egregious is that I am a male. Not just male but also heterosexual. Well, I may as well admit to my further crimes, I am white as well. At least I do not fit the final box on the White, Male, Heterosexual privilege chart, I am not a true WASP as I am not Protestant. But as it turns out, I may be in an even worse category; I am a Jew, and not just a Jew but a Zionist and conservative Jew. I may as well admit it as it has cost me dearly in the past making me a pariah in more than one Synagogue across the fruited plains and both coasts as well. But I am even worse than the run of the mill White, Male, Heterosexual, Conservative, Religious and pro-Israel individual, I am proud of my guilt because I know that there is no real guilt to be had. The only true sin I have committed is not having any difficulty owning up to my presumed guilt and will gladly profess my preferences before my accusers. Of course this simply infuriates them further as they only gain advantage when people like me act ashamed and defensive to their accusations. Me, I simply revel in them and laughingly watch as those who would greedily stand pointing out my guilt over my groveling and writhing body on my face and begging forgiveness as they haughtily instruct me that I must confess my sins. They cannot utilize someone who refuses to beg and instead stands proudly before them stating that sure I am exactly what you accuse me of being, so what! That is the wrong stance and they are used to people that apologize for their sins, not reveling in them and using the identities as a badge of honor that it should be and not a sash of shame. I will not eat humble pie nor will I claim to be sorry for my accomplishments as I earned each and every one and none were simply given to me because of my so-called privilege.

 

You see I refuse to play by the rulebook of Identity Politics. This book states that in order to win every argument one only need accuse the other side of committing some unforgivable sin. The person is white or male or heterosexual or conservative or belongs to any group which can be cast as a majority, well, except being male as men are actually a minority. Their rules are to hit any sensitive spot where they can accuse you of being one of the deadly privileged kinds of personhood and if no prime example exists, then they just throw accusations until they hit a nerve. The accusations start with the obvious but let us say their adversary is someone such as Star Parker who is an American syndicated columnist, Republican politician, conservative political activist, author and very attractive (see below). Her disqualifying identity is that she is famous and even more unapologetic than I. They would strike her for being a known conservative and a Republican and those would be the last words they manage before she would tear them apart piece by piece. That is a side effect of proud and informed conservatives; we usually are not at a loss for words. But even those of us who are capable of giving as good as we get, if not better, is that we are defenseless against the current dilemma, the massive attacks such as are showing at Republican politicians’ town hall meetings.

 

Star Parker

 

Protesters exploded in anger after a chaplain prayed in the name of Jesus at a town hall meeting in Louisiana hosted by U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy. They did just as decent, or should we say indecent, a job heckling at a decorated Viet Nam veteran when he attempted to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The hecklers shouted things such as, “Pray on your own time. This is our time,” and “Amen. Let’s get on with it,” while others insisted, “Separation of church and state” and so on and so forth. Chaplain Sprague told the media, “I’ve never been shouted down throughout a time of prayer like that,” adding “I’ve never been in a situation like that. It’s sad there wasn’t honor and respect for God.” Cassidy said in remarks reported by the Times-Picayune, “Wow, they booed the name of Jesus.” Some mentioned that they were suspicious as to the origin of these disrupters as they claimed people from their area would never have acted in such a manner. Our sense was it had been noted that there were numerous vehicles which arrived early with out of state license plates which we found to be suspicious explaining why the event had been hijacked with some of the locals betting that the disrupters were likely paid for their disruptive and disgusting performances. Their providers likely should be happy as it appears they got their money’s worth.

 

 

This has been the recent explosion across the width and breadth of the United States at numerous conservative town hall meetings held by Republicans. These have been in concert with the events we spoke of in our article from yesterday titled, “The Left and Their Dream with the Shadow Government” where there have been concerted rioting taking place in major liberal cities and college campuses with many locations security personnel and police instructed to stand back and allow the “demonstrators” space to express themselves. In an event not too long ago where Milo Yiannopoulos was invited to give a performance or something at the University of California Berkley Campus where because he was perceived as a conservative speaker, he is more libertarian than conservative, there was a riot staged with the campus police instructed not to interfere resulting in over one-hundred-thousand-dollars damages to the campus before everything calmed. He was denied speaking so their actions were rewarded and this will serve Berkley, the birthplace back in the 1960’s of free speech, poorly and probably just serve to encourage a much larger disruption the next time anybody considered controversial is invited by anybody to appear.

 

All of these actions have been far from amusing and have served to reinforce that my making Aliyah was the correct action even though my doing so had nothing to do with American political scene, it was the result of a promise made to myself when I was quite young, nine to be exact. My wife probably would have preferred my informing her of this little item before we were married and the look on her face when I announced we were moving to Israel one evening in passing as if it was simply another casual remark. Her reaction was less than casual and in the end we made the trip and it has made us both quite happy to be here. She still holds dearly to her Americanism and the politics are a sort of interest though she does not dwell politics quite as I do. She spends more time socializing and having events with other ladies and groups, often dragging me along (well, not always dragging as I do enjoy many events and am going to pay for admitting this). Perhaps we can take less of a panicked look at events in the United States, at least far more relaxed than our friends still back there, especially those residing near and about the nation’s capital. That space allows for a more unattached review where things do not strike us as if it were right outside. For that we have our own set of political and other possibilities which take center stage over the events in America, as they should. Still, we at BTC still need to stay up to date on events back in the United States in order to write on them, so we still know and react to events, just do not need to worry if the demonstrations will be coming down our street or block our way to the store or wherever. As stated, for that we have our own difficulties from time to time.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Jews Stirring Anti-Semitism Protesting Trump

 

You open the newspaper, you turn on the evening news, you watch the Sunday talking heads and the story is the same, Jews on the front lines protesting against the elections of President Trump. They are there carrying the “Not My President” and the “Not Our President” signs, the front lines against the seven nation hold on refugees and immigrants until a proper vetting program can be initiated, and the lead in every protest on every campus and in every city. These are Open Orthodox, Conservatives, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews as well as the few Hassidic Jews who firmly believe that Israel should not have been founded until the Messiah has come and established it for the Jews. All of these Jews have one thing in common, they are in stark contrast to the vast majority of Israeli Jews and their fellow Jews in Israel stand confused and somewhat shocked. How do I know this? Because that is the number one question I hear every morning at services. My fellow congregants ask me to explain what these Jews are so upset over and why are they fighting against everything which Israelis believe has been the greatest thing to come along for Israel since Truman recognized Israel in 1948 and the military cooperation between our two nations over the past sixty plus years now, since the Six Day War woke Lyndon Banes Johnson to the fact that Israel just might serve as a good ally for the United States. Their confusion is palpable and can only leave me sad when I finally tell them the truths.

 

The reality is best made for them to visualize when I explain that the Conservative Synagogue my wife and I attended, for lack of an Orthodox one available where we resided in Oklahoma, was all but exactly identical in atmosphere and service style to the Reform Synagogue I had attended at times during my teen years. Even more troubling for them and my telling is that the number one question we received when congregants learned we were making Aliyah and moving to Israel was, “Why would you want to go there?” and “What is wrong with you?” and lastly a simple, “Why?” as if we would fully understand that last single word expression of disbelief. This was the standard set of queries with the exception of the few real friends we had made who were fellow conservatives politically. These friends had already requested we keep their political aligning with the Republicans to ourselves as everybody knew my wife and I were Republicans and very conservative politically as we broadcast it not being worried about making friends. What did turn out to be interesting was that after a while the very liberal Rabbi had to reconcile that he and I have some similar ideas on Torah and human rights, something he found astonishing. At least the Rabbi was happy about our moving to Israel hopefully because he at least also loved Israel and not because we were leaving, we believe it to be the former.

 

I explain to my Israeli friends that the vast majority of Jews have little if any affinity for Israel and simply wish Israel would give the Palestinians whatever it is that will make them happy, a state, whatever, just satisfy them at any cost so that Israel stops being an embarrassment for them. Their liberal, actually leftist in all too many cases, was far more important to them than was the survival of Israel or the lives of Israelis. They lost their affections for Israel decades ago once Israel pulled out their victory in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War after being caught completely off guard and flat-footed. The fact that Israel was able to repulse the attacks in that war gave the American Jewish community the feeling that Israel had become a superpower all but equal to the United States and impervious to Arab aggressions. Many younger American Jews even believe that Israel is probably four, five, six or even ten times its actual size as they believe it remains the size it had when it still held the Sinai Peninsula. These younger Jews are really geography-challenged and have little if any actual clue of reality and if they were to be told that Israel is barely the size of New Jersey they would be more likely to believe New Jersey had grown to the size of Texas than change their unfounded views about Israel. As far as many American Jews are concerned their leftist values are far more important than any Jewish homeland as for them America is the new Promised Land.

 

This article may receive a number of denunciations because these Jews are also very sensitive when called out as they are the good people and are always beyond reproach. Their beliefs are always above question and of the highest morality. Their belief is Judaism is all about what they call Tikkun Olam. This they define as repair the world through converting the world to their socialist perfect world where the government solves every problem. They do not see Tikkun Olam as the perfecting and improvement of the self in order to make the world better. They see themselves as already as near to perfect as is humanly possible and the real problem is making everybody else to be like them. If everybody would simply believe as they do, the world would become a perfect world. To them when they see Israel in the news it distresses them not because they feel for Israel but because the problems Israel has reflects on them making their lives difficult as they feel they are identified with guilt rubbing off from Israeli misdeeds. They perceive Israeli actions defending herself from terrorism to be unnecessary as if Israel would just bend to the Arab demands then there would be peace. Their desire is for all problems to go away the fastest and easiest means possible, and that to them most often is Israel compromising because their leftist newspapers and newscasts all blame Israel so it must be true.

 

They also see the government headed by Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to be exactly as their news media portray it, an extreme right wing settler crazies who refuse to give the Palestinians their rightful homeland. They believe that Israel conquered Palestine in 1967 and some even believe that Israel was a European colonialist enterprise from before 1948 and that there are no non-European Jews in Israel. There is no way to convince them of the reality that approximately half of Israeli Jews are from Arab nations of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) as well as India, Ethiopia and other places where lost tribes of Jews have been rescued. They believe that Israel is an Apartheid nation which denies Arabs the right to vote, work in certain fields, and refuse to allow Arabs free access without facing checkpoints at every intersection, well, not every intersection but too many. They look at you like you are trying to tell them Martians live in Israel when you tell them the Arab Israelis have every right that the Jewish Israelis have and that Israel has one of the largest Baha’I populations in the world as well as Druze and Bedouins who also have full rights and vote in Israeli elections are doctors, nurses, teachers, and in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. Speaking the truth to these Jews and expecting them to accept a single word is like speaking to a brick wall and expecting it to move out of your way. These Jews are more likely to believe the lies peddled by CAIR than they are to believe us when we visit from Israel with wonderful stories about how warm and wonderful life in Israel actually is and how we love living here, but they believed we were a bit odd to begin with.

 

The reality that Israelis need to learn to accept is that outside the true Orthodox Jewish communities, the Jews in America place the Democrat Party ahead of Israel in all things. The American Jews will accept that Keith Ellison is a perfect choice for the leadership of the Democrat Party and will see him as posing no threat to their existence. Should somebody point out that Keith Ellison supports Louis Farrakhan and his views that Jews are evil people who are barely human and deserve to be refused rights and that many of those who follow Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam actually desire to murder every Jew in America and some even the world they would call them a liar and demand their ostracization from membership in any social or political group potentially even the Synagogue except that would make them appear hateful. The fact that their beliefs about Israel easily make them appear to be hateful though they could not possibly be such as they are the perfect and beautiful people who are so full of love and compassion without a hateful bone in their bodies, ask them, they will gladly inform you and each will attest for the others. Theirs is a wonderfully close-knit community which supports all the correct causes and is by far the most acceptive people who support gay marriage, the entire LGBQT set of causes, the acceptance of refugees from Syria, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan and everywhere else across the Islamic World as it is in turmoil and believe that people should have the right to use whichever bathroom suits their mood each day and that gender-free bathrooms are a necessity and President Obama was the most Constitutional and perfect President greater than Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson combined, especially those detestable slave owners Washington and Jefferson.

 

Inform them that Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Iran, Egypt and the remainder of the Arab world have not appropriated a single refugee while the few nations which have had their borders crossed by refugees have corralled these refugees into camps surrounded by razor wire and armed guards with the expectations that these refugees will either be returned to their nation of origin or allowed to emigrate to Europe or elsewhere in the developed world but never a single one allowed to be taken in by another Arab nation, this they would be aghast and in complete disbelief. They would essentially murder the messenger rather than check to authenticate the message because it transgresses their firm belief that the Islamic world is above reproach and the people who might support President Trump’s temporary, that is temporary, holding of refugees and immigrants from seven unstable and terror hotbed nations with failed governments until a method for proper vetting can be put in place are uneducated simpletons. Such news would upset their world and as such it must be false because they have such a great grasp of everything which is passing along the world each day that such news which goes so completely against their world view thus impossible. Still, why is it that none of the Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia have taken in even a single refugee from Syria and the other six nations which are on President Trump’s travel restrictions and the United States should simply open the doors wide with no restrictions? These are not the tired, the poor, the huddled masses but the victims of dysfunctional states which have been all but destroyed who may be infiltrated by unknown numbers of Islamic State terrorists, al-Qaeda terrorists, Muslim Brotherhood operatives, and unknown other terror suspects which vetting could detect. Perhaps Trump should make a deal that once the one hundred thousand airconditioned tents Saudi Arabia had set up in the dessert for the Haj and used them for Arab refugees then the United States will start taking the overflow afterwards (see image below). The American Jews probably find the news about all those tents with air conditioning which Saudi Arabia could use for refugees something they have been unaware existed, but that would not be any reason nor would the rejection of these same refugees by Saudi Arabia should not affect the United States policies on these same refugees. One must wonder why the Saudi Arabia Royal Family is so against taking in these refugees, so strange.

 

There exists one hundred thousand really large tents Saudi Arabia uses to accommodate pilgrims on Hajj and each has a kitchen, bathroom, fire wood stove, as well as an air-conditioner and they never were intended for refugees as they are far too nice, or at least that is the Saudi Royal Family’s view.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Media Suddenly Discovers Dastardly Destruction Everywhere

 

With the election victory by Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence the media has discovered numerous pressing situations bordering on the brink of catastrophes. Suddenly Syria has become a conundrum of crushing confrontations waiting for the President elect while the current resident of the White House faced much lesser problems and addressing this would be asking a bit much. Oddly enough they also realized that Iraq is torn with ethnic strife as well as having much of its territory either occupied or threatened by the Islamic State. They also found that the Islamic State is operating as they please in Syria. Yemen is in the midst of a civil war and threatens a vital waterway at the south end of the Red Sea called the Bab-el-Mandeb. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have split with Egypt now aligning with Russia and Bashir al-Assad while Saudi Arabia continues to fight the Yemen Houthi rebels who are backed by Iran. The Saudis are also backing terrorist groups fighting Bashir al-Assad and some suspect they are knowingly funding and arming the Islamic State through alternate avenues. Turkey’s Erdogan appears to have suddenly gone rogue demanding immediate answers for Turkey’s admittance to the European Union (EU) one day and threatening to turn away any offer from the EU and consider joining the joint trading group organized by Russia and China called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). There are warring tribal groups contending with terrorist groups and crime families all vying for control of their slice of what was Libya. The Sudan and South Sudan are still fighting and there is a civil war of sorts in South Sudan adding to the confusion. There are terrorists plaguing Nigeria and even Europe is being overrun. Their prognosis is that the election of Donald Trump has caused the nations of the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) to explode suddenly and fiercely into frenzied destruction and fighting breaking out everywhere. Additionally, Russia is protecting their ports in Syria, namely in Latakia, and thus also protecting Bashir al-Assad who is ever so slowly regaining control of Syria one costly meter at a time. Wait; Russia has use of a port in the Mediterranean Sea, this is big. Oh how simple things would have stayed had only the voters in the United States had chosen wisely and elected Hillary Clinton.

 

The sudden awakening of the mainstream media to the problems throughout MENA states and beyond is almost amusing. Anyone reading news services from these effected regions have known and spoken with furrowed brows and stern hard faces often using terse terms describing ongoing events which continue to spin further and further out of control. Many have laid the problems at the feet of fecklessness in the foreign policies of the United States over the past decade emphasizing the retreat and resentment at being abandoned left to the scoundrels and other threats without any hope of rescue from those they had believed were their ally and eternal friend. As long as the United States did not have even a dog in the fight, and we mean literally not even a dog, let alone manpower or military forces, these traumatic conflagrations were unimportant as far as the media was concerned. The White House ignored these problems while making the one-off mention brushing aside concerns as if they were nothing more than a hiccup on the timeline of history as the White House was making it. The White House and especially President Obama and his Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry along with Samantha Powers and Susan Rice, the pair were Presidential Security Advisor and Ambassador to the United Nations and then switched positions a while after Benghazi, have all painted the Middle East as there being a situation in Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian problem and if only Israel would make nice and completely surrender to the Palestinians then miraculously Syria would become peaceful overnight as would any other disturbance anywhere in the world. It is as if the only actual disturbance in the force is Israel, so does that make Israel Yoda? Seriously, the Obama White House position has been that Israel causes unrest throughout the Middle East and beyond and it is the Jews residing beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines on lands gained in a defensive war started by Egypt and Syria and joined on day two by Jordan despite pleading from Israel for their remaining neutral. This Jordanian attack led to Israel liberating Judea and Samaria from Jordan’s illegal occupation for nineteen years including half of Jerusalem.

 

Had Syria and Egypt attacked any other nation in the world and had Jordan joined on the second day and, for example let us say they attacked Peru; if Peru in that war had gained the lands of Judea and Samaria, they would have been allowed to retain the lands and even push any non-Peruvians off the lands with minimal complaint from the world. The problem is they did not attack Peru but instead they attacked Israel. There is an effort initiated by the British when they saw that allowing the formation of the Jewish State was going to upset the Arabs they decided to do whatever they were able to prevent Israel from ever coming to fruition. They could do this as they controlled the Mandate for the geographic area called Palestine, a name derived from the Roman name for the area of southern Syria, Syria Palaestina.

 

 

The British after World War I continued to import Arabs to reside between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea with ample assistance from the Arab League and surrounding Arab nations from as far as Algeria though largely from the Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and even Turkey. This kept the Jewish population below fifty-percent thus never quite fulfilling the requirement of being capable of ruling a nation. In the aftermath of World War II the British had lost their taste for empire and simply wanted to leave the Middle East and particularly the area which was to become Israel. Ever since the British leaving and Israel being founded there have been numerous studies which have shown how the Arab world has designs to be rid of the Jewish State and how often the European nations are supportive of the Arab efforts as though they would love for Israel to fail, they do not have the will to cause such in any manner other than indirectly. Do not misunderstand as the Europeans gladly enrich their lives with the discoveries and inventions from Israeli sources and even have utilized some such as instant messenger programs to support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction Israel) Movement and other injurious acts.

 

Denouncing Israel in the United Nations General Assembly and throughout the various agencies which often act in injurious ways such as when recently UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) ruled that the Temple Mount and surrounding areas have no historical ties to the Jews or Judaism which is a manner of denying the existence of the First and Second Temples and close to two-thousand years of Israelite and Jewish history. And UNESCO comes in a poor second when it comes to denunciations of Israel where the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) who have denounced Israel in virtually every meeting for the past five years. The General Assemble also has a poor record though there has recently been some small headway with Israel sponsoring resolutions which was passed by a vote of 129-30-8 to set up technical training, global entrepreneurship and sharing of technologic systems through assistance efforts where often Israel and other developed nations share technological advancements in areas such as agriculture and power generation assisting these developing nations making greater and stronger strides toward a bright future.

 

Needless to point out that all these problems, wars, conflagrations and turmoil have existed for much of the past decade and is not a reaction where the world all but exploded because of the election of Donald Trump. We can also predict some of the big news stories and special editions where a story is expounded and enlarged all passed off as news. There will be all sorts of new findings about the rampant homelessness and how people are feeling helpless and cannot seem to find any assistance for their plight. The mentally challenged living on American city streets not receiving their medications and suffering because of the difficulty in receiving proper care will be another feature story, multi-part most likely running for a week or for four straight Sunday night prime time. Unemployment stories will be big initially and the people who are now not considered to be seeking work as their unemployment insurance ran out and they have been unemployed over one year thus are not part of the computations, well, the media will now use a newer and more accurate definition which they will mention softly and in passing once and then count people who have not held a job up to five years, maybe a decade. There will be heartbreaking stories of youths dropping out of school and the United States will have a drug problem once again. There will be heart-wrenching profiles of people being deported for being illegally in the country whether that be overstaying a student visa because you found a good job and who wants to return to the Ukraine about now. There will be stories about how families are on the verge of being broken up as one or any number of the family are here illegally. Many of these stories will be about people who are using the system to press their particular case and many will remain and become legal citizens within a decade, but while they are uncertain their stories play oh so well. Let us leave you with what you may find to be an unbelievably astounding fact; President Obama has deported more people than any previous President.

 

Beyond the Cusp